DISTRICT’S THIRD GRADERS IMPROVE SCORES ON FLORIDA STANDARDS ASSESSMENT FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

May 2018

Third graders in Palm Beach County showed an improvement on the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Florida Standards Assessment taken during the spring at School District of Palm Beach County-operated schools, according to results released late Thursday by the Florida Department of Education.

Approximately 56 percent of third graders in the District earned a Level 3 or above on the ELA, an increase of 2 percentage points from the 2016-2017 school year, but 1 percentage point lower than the statewide average of 57 percent.

Palm Beach County is one of three large urban school districts that saw scores for students scoring a Level 3 or higher on the third grade ELA increase for the 2017-2018 school year. It is the third consecutive year that the District’s scores have increased; scores have improved by 5 percentage points since 2015.

Increasing the number of students reading on grade level by third grade is one of the four long-term outcomes highlighted in the District’s five-year Strategic Plan; the District again met its annual growth target of 2 percent, as outlined in the plan.

The District also showed improvement in the number of Black and Hispanic students scoring a Level 3 or higher on the third grade ELA. The number of Black students earning a 3 or higher grew by 3.8 percentage points from the 2016-2017 school year, while the number of Hispanic students scoring a 3 or higher rose by 3.4 percentage points from the previous year.

Twelve schools improved their Level 3 or higher scores by more than 10 percentage points compared to the previous year, including:

Florida statute requires students not scoring a Level 2 or higher on the ELA to be considered for retention in the third grade. However, students are eligible for promotion through other “good cause” criteria.

Parents of third grade students will receive individual reports on ELA results, and can view a list of scores by school in the District’s Executive Summary.